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Splicing Di2 Wires

It’s nearly 2 am and I’m pretty beat. Another day where time seemed to get away. I realized yesterday that I wasn’t going to have any luck getting longer wires for the Di2 I was putting on my cross bike. I decided that I couldn’t drive 3 or 4 hours to a race without that bike, so I spent most of the night spicing the existing wires and adding length to both the rear derailleur wire and the wire from the shifters to the bottom bracket.

It really didn’t take all that long, I watched a movie with some friends in the middle of it. I have to admit that it turned out great. Each Shimano wire only had two small wires. I had to go over to “The Shack” and get some shrink fit tubes to cover the soldering unions, but other than that, it was pretty quick and simple. I added 8 cm to the chain stay wire and 15 cm to the common wire to the union box.

Eventually, my bike is going to be all internally routed. I don’t have the correct seat tube battery or that is what I’d be doing now. Anyway, I didn’t get my bike back together, so I’m skipping the race tomorrow in Iowa and riding with the group from my house at noon. That is, if, I get my bike back together before then. It is supposed to be near 70 tomorrow, but it might be raining. That would be a drag. I’ll see how I feel and how the rest of the day goes before I decide about driving to Tulsa to race on Sunday. It is supposed to in the upper 70’s on Sunday there, which would seem pretty hot racing cross.

Okay, I’m heading to bed. Sorry about the lame post, but that is pretty much all I did today.

I got some extra wire off an old printer cable.

Then, I soldered the wires together after putting the shrink wrap over the wire loosely.

I put small shrink wrap over the individual joints and a bigger piece over the whole exposed area, covering the 4 places I soldered.

I had to add close to 6 inches on one of the wires.

This is the state my bike is in now. Nothing taped on clean or any chain or brakes on either. I’m using an 11 speed chain. It is supposed to shift a lot smoother on the 10 speed cassettes.

The were selling these at Radio Shack. Plus, when you paid they asked if you wanted to donate to the LiveStrong Foundation. I wonder how that is going for those guys?

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8 thoughts on “Splicing Di2 Wires”

Done a few of these . Your splice looks good. They should have provided some waterproof heat shrink,it’s usually a couple of clear pieces. Shrink those over the other stuff , heat gun to seal it up. Moistrue is the only real enemy of Di2. Good luck.

The mark-up on those little yellow bands is awesome. Those things cost maybe $0.05 to Team Tandy’s store. Team Tandy keeps some meaningful amount of the $0.99 too. I wonder how much of the donation they are skimming as a handling fee. Transaction processing is not free!

I’d be interested to hear how the floor workers have been trained to pitch the Livestrong scam. It isn’t about research, only “awareness.” Whatever that means. Here’s a crazy idea, how about working on patent “awareness” and the harm it does to cancer research?

Don’t let this part of your life pass you by. Maybe it’s time to change some things?

I wonder how the additional resistance of splicing affects the voltage delivery to your Di2 unit ? Would be interesting to do a befor and after check. Probably minimal, but I wonder what Shimano reccommends.

If you have a decent heat gun I could send you environmental solder splices (milspec aircraft stuff) that seal and solder in one operation. 1000% more reliable than hand soldering and putting heat shrink over the splice.. For a road bike your setup is probably fine, for CX I worry about moisture, corrosion and contamination of your wiring..

I have worn a Livestrong band since 2005. Every day, no matter what. Although I no longer respect Armstrong’s on-the-bike achievements as I once did, the respect he earned from me for his support and efforts in the cancer fight will never be lost. Maybe it’s because I am a cancer survivor, as is my wife. Sometimes the motivation I have drawn from knowing that there are millions of others who have gone through the cancer struggle is the difference between surviving and not.